Hi everyone. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, but I do well on a diet for a couple weeks and then I have my "cheat meal." That turns into three cheat days and a promise to do better next time. I just want to lose 15lbs so I can stop being upset about my weight. I hope by posting to a site like this I might find some willpower and no excuses tomorrow is a new day!

Hi, I can definitely relate to where you are coming from. I always seem to find one excuse or another to put my diet off for another meal, another day, another time, etc. I too start off with a bang and then eventually get sick of the diet and succumb to cravings or I make the mistake of thinking that I can have just a little of a cheat food. Of course that always seems to set off a chain reaction with me that does not end well. I have quite a bit of weight to lose and I am hoping that this community will give me the motivation and accountability that I have been lacking to finally lose this weight and to keep it off for good.. I hope that we both find what we need here and that we meet our goals.

I can't pre-plan 'cheat' meals because I JUMP off the wagon and go bananas for a few days once I get going. My most recent one was a few weeks ago and it was a mess!

My favourite mantra is every decision I make is either taking me closer to or further away from my weight loss goal - there is no standing still. I repeat it to myself when I can feel a 'cheat' coming on. It's worked the last couple weeks anyway

I think our internal dialogue that is the most detrimental is the whole "Just this ONE donut isn't going to throw away all of my hard work, I'll work it out tomorrow....". Or, "I've been really good this week, I'm going to get McDonald's." What I have been doing that seems to help me stay accountable is to track every single thing that I ingest, food, drink, snack, whatever. I keep a food journal. I have been doing it for two months now and it definitely makes me think about if I want to deal with the feelings of writing down that I ate all of those sweets, or that horrible fast food meal. It keeps me closer to the straight and narrow. And I don't lie to myself and leave things out of it. I used to try to do weight watchers, with the points, but I would just leave off the worst stuff b/c they would eat away all of my daily allotted points. With the journal, I'm not counting calories, or anything, just being brutally honest with myself about how I am doing. I know when I had a bad day, or weekend, and I can look back at the food choices that I made, and adjust accordingly. I read that it is all a part of a reflection exercise. I think that it is really helping me.